Hearthstone update 8.4 released, here’s what’s new and changed

In preparation of the upcoming Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion, Blizzard has released update 8.4 for Hearthstone. The update opens pre-purchase for the upcoming expansion, while making balance changes to The Caverns Below, changing the type of some minions, adding more card backs, and fixing several bugs.

Pre-purchased card packs and the Frostmourne card back will now appear in-game. Knights of the Frozen Throne card packs can be opened when the expansion is released in August.

Balance Update

The Caverns Below now reads: Quest: Play five minions with the same name. Reward: Crystal Core.

The Caverns Below is uniquely powerful versus several slower, control-oriented decks and is played often enough to push those decks out of play. While deck diversity in Ranked Play is good, a change to The Caverns Below was still warranted to help keep that trend going into the future.

The Caverns Below can now be disenchanted for full Arcane Dust value until July 24 PDT.

Flamestrike, Abyssal Enforcer, and Vicious Fledgling will appear in drafts 50% less often.

Popular cards had small drop rate changes to address class balance concerns. (Note – These changes range from 1-5%. They are small enough that they are unlikely to be noticed during an individual draft, but should have enough cumulative impact to help improve class balance.)

We’re working to improve the Arena experience, and your feedback is always appreciated!